How to build bigger forearms

Roll up your sleeves and read this before your next workout

Bigger forearms are officially in fashion. Not just because they show off your new Tag Heuer, but they’ll support a vice-like grip and help an equally impressive deadlift. But what if yours look like pipe-cleaners? Well, according to research, you need to adjust your grip, ditch the gym gloves, use a different bar and master the biomechanics of your biceps.

Basic tips to building bigger forearms

1/5

Image: Rohan Hande

Vary your pull-ups

Pull-ups are one of the most tried and tested exercises in strength and conditioning. You simply grip a bar, lift your body off the floor and then repeatedly pull your chin above it. It’s that simple. All because research from the Department of Kinesiology at Pennsylvania State University shows small variations in technique can train different muscle groups. If you use an underhand grip (supinated) you train the biceps. If you use an overhand grip (pronated) you train the back.

But have you ever tried performing your pull-ups on a rope or with a Judo Gi? The Martial Arts and Combat Sports Research Group from the University of Sao Paulo found that there was a significant increase in grip strength — and forearm muscle activation — when athletes chose to forgo the comfort offered by a soft and smooth pull-up bar and train from a rope or Judo suit hung from it.

Throw away your gym gloves

Scientists from the Biodynamics Laboratory Department at Ohio State University discovered that gym gloves could be sapping your strength. Whether they’re leather or rubber, research revealed that “grip strength was significantly less in the two gloved conditions than in a barehanded condition”.

Concluding, “A certain amount of muscle force is lost in the hand-glove interface while producing maximal grip forces in the gloved conditions.”

In summary, if you want to improve the size and strength of your forearms make this change to your gym wardrobe. Lift au naturel — or at the most, with a little bit of chalk — and watch as you test the elasticity of your shirt sleeves.

Image: Getty Images

Grab a fat grip

Whether you knew it or not, the bar you choose to train with will directly impact the size and strength of your forearms. How?

Research published by the National Strength & Conditioning Association Journal found that the forearms — and muscles of the hands — are in a constant state of contraction when lifting with a thicker bar. They noted this was especially true during the eccentric phase (the lowering part of the lift) where a thinner bar allowed an athlete’s muscles associated with grip to “rest”.

Now, the more frequent gym dwellers reading this will no doubt have seen many weird and wonderful grip aids hit the market in recent years. And yes, many are backed by some credible research, so if your gym has any we’d recommend experimenting with them. But for everyone else, don’t feel you need to invest in these gadgets to build Popeye-like arms. For now, take a normal bar, wrap a towel around it and perform your bicep curls.

Learn the plate pinch

They have their merits, but a personal favourite is the plate pinch. This involves picking up a few 5kg plates with your thumb on one side and your fingers on the other. Pass the plates around your body from right to left. Then do the same in the opposite direction. You either compete in circles around the body or you add more 5kg plates. It’s fun, it’s functional and it fatigues your forearms in a completely different way.

Image: Rohan Hande

Learn bicep biomechanics

Lastly, putting towel-based support and plate pinching to one side, know that understanding bicep biomechanics could be the single most effective way to train the forearms. Let’s take the age-old curl as an example. According to research from the National Strength and Conditioning Journal performing them with a reverse grip will result in a 66 per cent to 82 per cent reduction in force generated (the weight you can bicep curl with), but it requires “Isometric wrist extension to maintain neutral wrist position.”

What this means is the forearms must be in a constant state of tension since performing reverse curls with a limp wrist is hard to near impossible. The exact same principle applies to the Zottman Curl. Now there is no single best exercise to build biceps and forearms — just like there’s no best protein powder — but if there was the Zottman Curl would be a strong contender.